Is Your Junior Athlete Ready?
We’re excited to have this guest blog post by our resident youth strength and conditioning coach Jeff Turner.
Coach Jeff is the real deal, with over three decades in the trenches training elite level athletes in both soccer and lacrosse, as well as over a dozen other sports. His specialty, and why he’s a perfect youth coach for HFF, is developing the foundational aspects of athleticism, which lead to increased performance and durability (keeping juniors injury free).
He also takes a personalized approach and progresses each junior athlete at the ideal pace for him or her.
If you’ve got a junior athlete in your family, this post is for YOU.
Enter Jeff:
“Physical Readiness” is a term used by elite strength and conditioning coaches around the world. In plain English, it means that the athlete is prepared to meet the demands of their sport, both in practice and in games.
One of the biggest problems I see in youth sports is the assumption of physical readiness. Everyone assumes kids are able to perform activities like conditioning sessions, sport specific drills, strength training, and even the sport itself.
We’ve all seen the kid that looks like he’s running in slow motion - he’s giving it all he has, but no matter how much effort he gives, he’s still struggling. You know something is off, but you can’t put your finger on it.